R3 
 Mo- 2,0 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 013 982 892 6 
 
 HoIIinger 
 
 pH8.5 
 
 Mill Run F3.1955 
 
E 783 
 .R3 
 
 no. 20 
 Copy 1 
 
 Wilson's Fatal Policy 
 in Mexico 
 
 Murder, Ruin, Robbery and Desolation Left 
 in the Wake of His Deadly Delusions 
 
 AMERICANS SCORNED AND FLOUTED 
 
 Abandoned by Their Own Government, 
 
 Their Property Seized, Their Women 
 
 Abused and Their Appeals for 
 
 Help Answered Only With 
 
 Derision 
 
 SPEAKER'S SERIES NO. 20 
 Published by the Republican National Committee 
 
 Washington, D. C, 1920 
 

 Mr. Wilson came into the Presidency after a military coup in 
 Mexico — not uncommon in Latin American republics — had over- 
 thrown the government. President Taft left the Democratic ad- 
 ministration a free hand to follow its own course. With what 
 result? By incompetence and inefficiency, intemperance and intol- 
 erance, interference and neglect, the Wilson administration de- 
 stroyed the one chance Mexico had to restore a stable government ; 
 it overthrew governments in embryo ; it sent envoys to rebels in 
 arms against a friendly government; it brought on anarchy; it 
 caused the murder of hundreds of Americans, the loss of hundreds 
 of homes of Americans ; the violent death of tens of thousands of 
 Mexicans, and the destruction of hundreds of millions of property 
 belonging to Americans and Mexicans. 
 
 The Democratic record in Mexico is a record of shame that the 
 United States will find it difficult to live down — a record that will 
 cost many years of dutiful effort to regain friendship and restore 
 prosperity. It is one of the few black spots on the pages of 
 American history. 
 
WILSON'S FATAL POLICY IN MEXICO 
 
 From the dawn of civilization to the advent of Woodrow Wil- 
 son as President of the United States, every nation worthv of 
 the name has sought to protect its citizens and their interests 
 wherever it had the power to do so. To Woodrow Wilson and 
 the Democratic administration under him it fell to abandon this 
 universal policy and proclaim to American pioneers in interna- 
 tional commerce and industry that the United States would not 
 give them the protection that was theirs by every right. 
 
 Americans in Mexico, braving the dangers of jungles and tropi- 
 cal climate in order to procure raw materials for American trade 
 and industry, promoting trade with the United States, advance 
 agents of prosperity both in Mexico and to their own country, 
 were warned early in the Wilson regime that the\- would have 
 to look out for themselves or get out. They were ^advised later 
 to get out of the country and to abandon the homes and proper- 
 ties which in many instances represented the savings of a lifetime. 
 They were warned definitel}- that the United States would not 
 try to protect them. 
 
 NO PROTECTION FOR AMERICANS 
 
 The duty of a country to protect its citizens and their interests 
 abroad has been recognized by American statesmen since the birth 
 of this country. It has received the endorsement in words by all 
 parties in all times and in deeds by all parties at all times until 
 the era of the Democratic administration of Woodrow Wilson. 
 Even in the platforms on which he was elected "The sacred rights 
 of American citizenship at home and abroad'' were declared and 
 reaffirmed. Champ Clark, in 1919, declared that "No nation will 
 long endure, or deserves to endure, that fails to protect all its 
 citizens wherever they may be, on land or sea.'' 
 
 That the United States has and long has had a duty toward 
 Mexico has been generally appreciated, and the nature of it has 
 been plain to everyone except Mr. Wilson and his Democratic 
 administration. The duty was well summed up by Theodore 
 Roosevelt in his last message to the American people, printed after 
 his death, as follows : 
 
 W^e have enough to do that is our business. Mexico 
 is our Balkan Peninsula, and during the last five years, 
 thanks largely to Mr. Wilson's able assistance, it has been 
 reduced to a condition as hideous as that of the Balkan 
 
Peninsula under Turkish rule. AVe are in honor bound to 
 remedy this wrong- and to keep ourselves so prepared that 
 the Monroe doctrine, especially as regards the lands in 
 any way controlling the approach to the Panama Canal, 
 shall be accepted as immutable international law. 
 
 Let us see what 'Mr. '\\'ilson's repudiation of one of the first 
 duties of a nation meant for Americans and for Mexicans. It 
 brought contempt upon the United vStates. shame to all our citi- 
 zens abroad, and di-i'e calamity to Americans and their interests in 
 Mexico. It led directly to the expulsio.n of 55,000 Americans from 
 that country, to the murder of more than 500 of them, to the loss 
 by confiscation or destruction of $1,000,000,000 worth of Ameri- 
 can property, to the death in battle of 300,000 Mexicans and to 
 the death by starvaticn and disease of 100,000 more, and to the 
 expenditure by this Government of more than $500,000,000 in ex- 
 ploiting the personal views of Woodrow Wilson. 
 
 For the past eight years Mexico has l)cen going from bad to 
 worse, physically, governmentally, economically and morally, until 
 she has reached a state of almost complete chaos. Civil war and 
 bolshevism, internal evils and external sophistries have kept her in 
 a turmoil until the Mexican people are discouraged, impoverished, 
 hopeless. The frank neglect by Mexico of her international obliga- 
 tions has made of her a pariah among the nations of the world. 
 At the First International Conference at The Hague she was the 
 only Latin-American nation chosen to participate; today she is ex- 
 cluded even from the League of Nations. 
 
 THE EVIL DONE TO MEXICO 
 
 A stand by the L^nited States, at the beginning of Woodrow 
 Wilson's Administration, for the protection of Americans and their 
 interests in Mexico would have prevented this chaotic disintegra- 
 tion of a great nation. But now, misled by selfish chieftains, bled 
 to her last peso by those who have ruled her by force. Mexico has 
 lost her former standing in the society of civilized peoples and 
 neither her word nor her bond is accepted by any nation. The 
 Mexican Government is not today recognized by any world power 
 
 Picture Mexico today. Economically she is in a woeful plight. 
 Her public bonded debt is more than $250,000,000 gold, and, with 
 the burden of the public utilities she seized and operated, her debt 
 will run well over ■$.-)00. 000, 000. She has defaulted on her bonds 
 since 1913, she has seized all the foreign owned railways and, 
 excepting the Mexican Railway which was recently returned tc 
 its owners, is still operating them, the express companies and 
 other public iitilities. All these she has operated for her own 
 exclusive benefit without any accovmting to the foreign bond- 
 holders. Yet she has nothing to show for it, despite the greater 
 
taxation and other extortionate exactions which made her income 
 under Carranza greater than ever before in her history. Banks 
 have been looted by the government, good money has been re- 
 placed with worthless script. All seizable assets have been dissi- 
 pated by the high officials in maintaining the army. 
 
 This is not an outsider's view of Mexico. The ^lexicans them- 
 selves admit the woeful condition of their country. In August 
 of last year Salvador Alvarado, one of the present IMinisters of 
 State and a power in the new regime, addressed an open letter to 
 \"enustiano Carranza and Generals Pablo Gonzalez and Alvaro 
 Obregon. The letter was entitled "The Balance Sheet of the 
 Revolution." It was a pathetic appeal to save the countrv. 
 
 BALANCE SHEET OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 Here are a few paragraphs from this "Balance Sheet," as pub- 
 lished by that staunch supporter of the Wilson foreign policies. 
 The New York Times : 
 
 The great social movement which the revolution was 
 supposed to inaugurate has degenerated into the satisfying 
 of the lowest passions of men of the most cjuestionable 
 character, crooks who. instead of being made Governors 
 of States and put at the head of military operations, should 
 be behind the bars of prisons. 
 
 In spite of the establishment of constitutional govern- 
 ment the weeding-out process of the worst elements of the 
 revolution has not been carried out. The dregs of so- 
 ciety, released from jails by the revolutionists, have been 
 permitted to remain in the Government and the army, and 
 some of them are wearing the insignia of Generals of Di- 
 vision. 
 
 The administration of justice has never had a good 
 name in Mexico, but it can not be more prostituted than it 
 is at the present time. A wave of immorality, open and 
 cynical, involves every act of the court. 
 
 The most alarming symptom is that public opinion no 
 longer reacts when it hears of cases of bribery, graft, cor- . 
 ruption and thefts of all kinds. It seems as if a wave of 
 immorality has taken possession of everybody and every- 
 thing in Mexico. This state of affairs has been caused by 
 the fact that the dregs of society are now at large and 
 holding high places in the councils of the nation. 
 
 -The army and its leaders who terrorized Mexico during the 
 last eight years were referred to by the Spanish author, Blasco 
 Ibanez, as "the crowd of gunmen which is exploiting and dishon- 
 oring the poor people of Mexico." He declared that he was actu- 
 
ated by an honest desire to contribute all he could "toward the 
 destruction of that imperialism which is the principal cause of 
 the backwardness and the anarchical state of affairs in which 
 Mexico is living:.'' And he added: 
 
 So long as that country does not suppress its generals, 
 who are everlastingly bent on tyrannizing over it, so long- 
 as it is not ruled by pacific citizens able to think in modern 
 terms, Mexico will remain a sad exception, an object of 
 loathing and disgust among all civilized peoples. The 
 well-to-do classes of Mexico have fled the country and are 
 wanderers on the face of the earth. The middle and pro- 
 fessional classes have continued living at home, but under 
 deplorable conditions, and either not daring to speak at 
 all, or saying what they really think in as low a voice as 
 possible. What else can they do with militarism in the 
 saddle? A\'here can they find protection if the strongest 
 portion of the j^eople, kept in ignorance, follow the mili- 
 tary men blindly on receipt of a rifle and on a promise 
 of two dollars a day and a free hand? 
 
 MR. WILSON ON HIS OWN WORK 
 
 Letters that he had received, wrote Blasco Ibanez, "read like 
 the lamentations of slaves, denouncing the crimes of their oppres- 
 sors and doubting whether there will ever be justice in that coun- 
 try." 
 
 Lest this picture of Mexico should seem partisan, let one read 
 what A\'oodrow Wilson, Democratic President of the United 
 States, said of that country barely five years ago, and bear in mind 
 that conditions there have steadily grown worse since that time: 
 
 Mexico is apparently no nearer a solution of her tragi- 
 cal troubles than she was when the revolution was first 
 kindled. And she has been swept by civil war as if by 
 fire/ Her crops are destroyed, her fields lie unseeded, her 
 work cattle are confiscated for the use of the armed fac- 
 ticns, her people flee to escape being drawn into unavail- 
 ing bloodshed, and no man seems to see or lead the way 
 to peace and settled order. There is no proper protection 
 either for her own citizens or for the citizens of other na- 
 tions resident and at work within her territory. Mexico, 
 is starving and without a government. 
 
 Moreover, subsecjuently Robert I^ansing, Democratic Secretary 
 of State, addressed the Minister of Foreign Relations of the Car- 
 ranza Government which had been recognized by the United States 
 in a note containing the following sentences: 
 
For three years the Mexican Republic has been torn 
 with civil strife ; the lives of Americans and other aliens 
 have been sacrificed; vast properties developed by Ameri- 
 can capital and enterprise have been destroyed or ren- 
 dered nonproductive ; bandits have been permitted to roam 
 at will through the territory contiguous to the United 
 States and to seize, without punishment or without effec- 
 tive attempt at punishment, the property of Americans, 
 while the lives of citizens of the United States who ven- 
 tured to remain in Mexican territory or to return there 
 to protect their interests have been taken, and in some 
 cases barbarously taken, and the murderers have neither 
 been apprehended nor brought to justice. It would be 
 difficult to find in the annals of the history of Mexico con- 
 ditions more deplorable than those which have existed 
 there during these recent years of civil war. 
 
 No plea of ignorance of conditions in Mexico can be accepted 
 for Woodrow Wilson and his Democratic administration. The 
 words of the President himself and of his Secretary of State show 
 plainly that they have known the lives and properties of /\meri- 
 can citizens in Mexico were being ruthlessly sacrificed, and thev 
 did nothing but write notes admitting it— in the face of the Demo- 
 cratic platforms pompously proclaiming the duty of the nation 
 to protect "the sacred rights of American citizenship at home 
 and abroad.'" This duty was ignored by Woodrow Wilson and his 
 Democratic administration. 
 
 WRECK, RUIN AND IGNORANCE. 
 
 With this riot of lawlessness, anarchy and destruction to which 
 President Wilson and Secretary Lansing bore witness, education 
 in Mexico was allowed to be swept away so that tens of thou- 
 sands of children have grown up during the past decade in igno- 
 rance. Graft, intrigue, trickery and hatred of Americans have 
 been the lessons learned by the arriving generation of Mexicans 
 from their elders. Schools were abandoned, teachers were left 
 unpaid until tliey were forced to seek other means of livelihood. 
 The coterie of men in power, recognized by Mr. Wilson as the 
 "government" of Mexico, deliberately sacrificed the teachers and 
 the children. One estimate has it that in the Federal District 
 alone 50.000 children of school age were deprived of education, 
 and it is known that the number of schools in the Federal District 
 dropped from more than three hundred to fewer than one hun- 
 dred. 
 
 The condition of the peon, the backbone of ]\Iexico character- 
 ized by President Wilson as "the submerged eighty-five per cent," 
 passed through every stage from indolent comfort to grinding 
 
 7 
 
hardshi]) and c\-en enforced exile. Food becan>e scarce, work for 
 wages was unknown except in the few spots where Americans 
 braved assassination and confiscation to keep their investments 
 whole, and millions of honest men. women and children faced 
 starvatit)n. l{\en today thousands of Mexicans are fleeing- from 
 their homes across the border into the United States that they 
 may be allowed to earn money enough to keep themselves and 
 their families from starvation. So serious has this exodus become 
 that the present Mexican Government is endeavoring- to find some 
 means to compel Mexican families — in several instances compos- 
 ing- entire towns — from moving- to the United States. 
 
 At whose door should the troubles of Mexico be laid? Pri- 
 marilv at the door of W'oodrow Wilson, President of the United 
 States, whose "watchful waiting" policy, at once his boast and 
 the curse of Mexico, can onh- be interpreted as officious meddling 
 in the internal affairs of a neighboring- nation and studied dis- 
 regard of the duty of protection to American lives and proj-)erty. 
 .\s Caspar Whitney so pertinently put it : 
 
 "We failed to mind our OWN l)usiness ; 
 "We failed to MIXD our own business.'' 
 
 AMERICAN CITIZENS KILLED AND OUTRAGED. 
 
 We failed to mind our own business by neglecting certain spe- 
 cific duties of government. 
 
 It was and is the duty of the United States to prctect 
 the lives and properties of Americans, as it is the bounden 
 duty of every nation to protect the lives and properties 
 of its citizens wherever they may be. Yet hundreds of 
 Americans were killed, hundreds of others were robbed 
 and insulted, American women were ravished, property 
 of American citizens valued at a billion dollars was de- 
 stroyed or stolen, and American officials were kidnapped 
 in the large cities of the country and forced to pay ransom 
 to bandits — and the Wilson administration did nothing 
 but send notes, some harsh but most of them mild and 
 all after carefully notifying the Mexican authorities that 
 we would not use force against them no matter how sav- 
 agely they outraged us. 
 
 This was in direct contrast to the pledges of the Democratic 
 ])latforms u])on which Woodrow Wilson was elected. Those 
 pledges were flouted and rei)udiated by the President and the man 
 he made Secretary of State, both of them ostensiblv chosen, one 
 by the peo])le of the country and the other by the President him- 
 self, to carr\- them out. The plan.k was sound enc^ugh. It asserted 
 boldlv: 
 
The Constitutional rights of American citizens should 
 protect them on our borders and go with them throughout 
 the Avorld ; and every American residing or having prop- 
 erty in any foreign country is entitled to and must be 
 given the full protection of the American government both 
 for himself and for his property. 
 
 Had Mr. Wilson, his Secretary of State and the Democratic 
 representatives in Congress used this declaration as something 
 more than "molasses to catch flies," the newspapers of the coun- 
 try would net now be carrying the information that the British 
 are getting the best of Americans on oil for the future. Inci- 
 dentally the hundreds of American citizens now dead in the moun- 
 tains, jungles and cities of Mexico would be alive and still at the 
 work of getting for the United States what the United States is 
 entitled to in raw materials. And, also incidentally, the hundreds 
 of thousands of Mexicans v/hc have died of the powder and shot, 
 allowed to the Mexican evil-doers by him who twenty-four hours 
 after he lifted the embargo on exporting arms and munitions to 
 Mexico, set aside a Day of Prayer for the Peace of All the World — 
 these dead innccents also would still be alive. 
 
 The Democratic ]ilatform pledge was practical. The AVilson 
 idealism that slew the innocents was and is nonsense — evil, deadlv 
 nonsense. 
 
 REPROACHES AND INSULTS FOR MEXICAN VICTIMS 
 
 On one riccasion, when affairs in Mexico were more than usually 
 serious the American colony in Mexico City, made up of sul)stan- 
 tial business men who were vitallv interested in the welfare of 
 Mexico, sent a committee to Washington to see the Democratic 
 v^ecretarv of State, and C(Misult with him on the best things to 
 do to meet the situation. They refused to advise meddling by 
 this countrv with the internal aft'airs of Mexico, but armed with 
 the Democratic ])latform went simply to read aloud the platform 
 ])ledge and to assure the Administration that that pledge spelled 
 jieace in Mexico, good relations, respect and finally friendship. 
 
 The Secretary gave the members of this committee just ten 
 minutes, six of which he used in telling the committee how busy 
 he was. He advised them to see the Democratic chairman of the 
 Foreign Relations Committee, of the Senate. This they did. and 
 to him thev read the Democratic ])latform pledge. The Demo- 
 cratic Senator read it himself and then handed it back to the 
 chairman of the committee with the ringing words: 
 
 You people don't understand ! The minute you crossed 
 that river (meaning the Rio Grande the name of which 
 he had forgotten) the United States lost all interest in 
 yo.u and all duty toward you. 
 
This un-American sentiment, uttered by Woodrow Wilson's 
 spokesman in the Senate of the United States, crushed the com- 
 mittee, but the members of it did not give up until they had seen 
 the President himself. J\Ir. Wilson's chief interest was to find 
 out what companies these men represented — not what they knew 
 about Mexico and the Mexicans. His- duty was plain, and has 
 remained plain during the seven and a half years he has been in 
 office. As President of the United States it was his duty to 
 protect Americans — instead of jireaching about his duty to all 
 mankind. exce])t American mankind. 
 
 WHAT ITALY DID AND AMERICA DIDN'T 
 
 Let us see how such a policy has worked in another instance — 
 even against the LTnited States. In 189'2 five Italian criminals, 
 members of the Mafia, who murdered the chief of police of New 
 Orleans, were lynched by an outraged mob. For this Italy with- 
 drew her diplomatic representative from Washington. Negotia- 
 tions were carried on by the French diplomists here, on behalf of 
 Italy, with the result that the L'nited States from that time on 
 complied with its international obligations toward Italian citizens. 
 There was no war. It is not on record that any Italian publicist 
 bespoke "patience, forbearance with a struggling young republic" 
 or even reminded the world that the five men lynched were "ad- 
 venturers." Italy simply minded her own business and obtained 
 redress and protection for her subjects. 
 
 Compare this with the Democratic policy under Mr. Wilson 
 toward Mexico when hundreds of Americans — not criminals but 
 citizens of the United States engaged in producing in Mexico raw 
 materials necessary for our well-being in peace and war — had 
 been murdered with impunity in Mexico, when posses of Car- 
 ranza's army were raiding American ranches and murdering 
 American citizens o.n American soil. Then Woodrow Wilsc»a 
 SENT an Ambassador to Mexico! The deadly idealism that 
 prompted this un-American capitulation is the cause of our troublef= 
 with Mexico and of the disorders in that country. Depredations 
 thrive on immunity. The Democratic administration favored the 
 Mexican criminals not only with immunity but encouragement- 
 through the writings of Woodrow Wilson and his propagandists. 
 William Bayard Hale, Lincoln Steffens and John Reed. 
 
 MR. WILSON'S QUEER REPRESENTATIVES 
 
 The Democratic record in connection with Mexic(j is a record 
 of refusal to listen to re])orts from American citizens and Ameri- 
 can officials on the ground. It has been notorious, on the other 
 hand, that President Wilson has taken his information on Mexico 
 from William Bayard Hale, a German })ropagandist ; Lincoln Stef- 
 
 10 
 
fens, friend and protector of Trotsky (and incidentally, this same 
 anti-American Steffens, thrown out of an American pulpit for his 
 utterances during the war, was retained l)y the Democrats to 
 write an article on Mexico for the 1910 Democratic Text Book); 
 John Reed, who was appointed Bolshevik consul at New York 
 and then became a fugitive from justice : and from John Lind. who 
 confessed under oath before the Senate Committee investigating 
 Mexican affairs that he had received "expenses'' from the Car- 
 ranza faction in Mexico. 
 
 Even if the Democratic policy toward our menacing neighbor 
 had been well intended, the fact that Woodrow Wilson deliberatelv 
 gathered his information as a basis for that policy from enemies 
 of American law and of American well-being must stand undis- 
 puted. 
 
 Since the accession of Woodrow Wilson to the Presidency Am- 
 bassadors to Mexico Wilson and Fletcher have been forced to re- 
 sign their high positions because of their conviction that the policy 
 of the administration has been ruinous to Americans in Mexico. 
 Consuls General Shanklin and Chamberlain have been forced to 
 resign their posts for the same reason. These trained service men 
 were willing and anxious to extend prt^tection to American citi- 
 zens on their properties in Mexico. All four found that the policy 
 of the Democratic administration encouraged confiscation, mur- 
 der and rape of Americans in Mexico and incursions by lawless 
 Mexican soldiery into American territory. As honorable American 
 citizens working for American prestige and respect against the 
 evil idealism of the Democratic Administration, only one course 
 was open to them. They resigned. 
 
 THE MEXICAN PROBLEM NO PROBLEM AT ALL 
 
 \Voodrow \Vilson was elected President (if the United States of 
 America — not the President of Mankind nor of Humanity. His 
 duty in Mexico was clear and precise — to gain and keep respect 
 for Americans on the border and in that country. It cannot be 
 denied that that duty was the last consideration in the sliaping 
 of Wilson's policy. To have fulfilled this duty would have averted 
 the disaster of Mexico and would not have led to war any more 
 than the similar attitude maintained l^v this Government from 
 ]8mS to 1910 had led to war. W'hen the United States assumed and 
 held this position no threat or thought of war ever arose ; and the 
 protection which, because of this attitude, the Mexican Govern- 
 ment extended to foreigners also protected Mexicans ; ^Mexico was 
 at peace. 
 
 The Mexican Problem is not a problem at all. It has been sim- 
 ply the reappearance of the elements of what was once a problem. 
 That problem was solved by President Hayes and his successors. 
 
 11 
 
The supposed problem of the last eight years was simple, but by 
 Woodrow Wilson, with the assistance of American socialists and 
 agitators, it was rendered complex because it was handled along the 
 lines of a supposed idealism which, when analyzed, spells Bol- 
 shevism in its baldest form. 
 
 William I'^rank Buckley, an attorney who lived many years in 
 ]\Iexico. testified under oath that the Wilson administration insulted 
 reputable Americans who were familiar with conditions in that 
 country when they profifered their advice out of the fullness of their 
 knowledge and from purely patriotic motives. President Wilson 
 himself egotistically snubbed prominent Americans actuated only 
 by love of their own country, a real interest in Mexico and a desire 
 to see co-operation between the two nations. Scores of men testi- 
 fied to the same attitude on the part of the President and his cabinet 
 satellites. ^Ir. Buckley said: "The American Government (under 
 A\'ilson) never consulted Americans in Mexico and has always re- 
 garded them as unscrupulous adventurers.'' 
 
 THE CROWNING DISGRACE AT TAMPICO 
 
 The unprecedented action of the Wilson administration April 20, 
 1914, still rankles in the heart of every patriotic American and 
 especially in the heart of every loyal officer and sailor of the United 
 States Navy. For it was on that date that Admiral Mayo was 
 ordered to abandon hundreds of American men, women and chil- 
 dren to the mercies of a mob of Mexicans in Tampico who were 
 marching through the streets shouting "death to Americans," as- 
 saulting them in their homes and in the business streets, and shoot- 
 ing at the American flag. When Consul Miller learned that Secre- 
 tary Josephus Daniels had ordered the withdrawal of the warships 
 from Tampico he cabled three separate protests to the State De- 
 partment setting forth the danger to Americans. Admiral Mayo 
 himself could not believe the orders and cabled back to Washington 
 to have them repeated. But they were confirmed — he was ordered 
 to leave threatened Americans in a foreign country to the mercy 
 of a hostile mob. They were finally rescued by German, British 
 and Dutch ships. 
 
 These American citizens, attending' to their own business, repu- 
 table men and their families, were forced to accept the protection 
 of foreign flags because the Democratic administration refused to 
 give them the protection they had the right to expect and to which 
 thev were entitled. They were taken to sea, transferred to the 
 American Avarships that had been withdrawn on orders from A\ ash- 
 ington, and then arbitrarily taken to Galveston. Their protests 
 against being- taken from their homes and business, leaving both 
 unprotected in a foreign land, went for naught. They were com- 
 pelled to accept the charity of the people of Galveston for food and 
 
 12 
 
clothing. A committee was sent to Washington to protest, but 
 President Wilson refused to see it, and Secretary Daniels, when 
 finally he condescended to receive them, called them "a lot of fili- 
 busters, schemers and adventurers." 
 
 This was the same attitude taken by My. Wilson's Secretary of 
 State, Bryan, who, when Americans were murdered or kidnaped 
 in ]\Iexico, shrugged his shoulders and said that they had no busi- 
 ness there anyway. How vastly different from that thoroughly 
 American Secretary of State, John Hay, who secured the instant 
 release of an American citizen, kidnaped by a ■Morocco bandit, by 
 cabling tersely to the Sultan of Alorocco, "'Perdicaris alive, or 
 Raisuli dead !" 
 
 AMERICAN PROPERTY UNDER CARRANZA 
 
 During the entire eight years of Wilson's regime the American 
 oil men have had a double battle to fight in order to secure the 
 petroleum necessary for peace-time pursuits and later vitally neces- 
 sary to the winning of the w^ar against the Central Powers of 
 Europe. First they had to fight against the deadly pitfalls of the 
 Mexican jungle and roving bands of bandits and rebels and even 
 against the predatory organized forces of President Carranza ; then 
 they had to fight against the indifference and even hostility of the 
 Wilson administration, by which they were branded as adventurers, 
 filibusters and trouble-makers even at the time they were desper- 
 ately struggling to wrest from the Mexican soil the fuel to run the 
 ships that were taking the American soldiers to Europe to defeat 
 Germany. 
 
 The American oil men have at no time sought more than the 
 recognition of their legal rights. They bought the land in the 
 Tampico district for the announced purpose of developing oil. They 
 paid the price asked for the land and every step they took was in 
 accord with the Mexican laws. As George Creel, the W'ilson press 
 agent, has written : 
 
 Xot a single American company or individual in Mexico 
 holds any concession from the Government of Mexico, 
 and not a single American company or individual in Mexico 
 is developing oil or has devolped oil on any land but that 
 acquired from private owners by straight-out purchase or 
 fair lease. 
 
 Yet confiscation of oil and other properties of Americans has 
 been carried on under one guise or another, without interference 
 by the Wilson administration during the entire eight years beyond 
 the sending of occasional notes, frequently inept, which became 
 such a joke in Mexico that the Mexican newspapers used them as 
 subjects of humorous stories and cartoons. Small land-owners by 
 the hundreds were driven from their homes and their properties 
 
 13 
 
confiscated. Appeals to Washington were filed until the material 
 evidence against Mexico clogged the archives of the State Depart- 
 ment. And the Wilson administration continued artlessly doing 
 nothing. 
 
 ALWAYS OTHER PEOPLE'S BUSINESS 
 
 But in failing- to mind our business in ^Mexico the Wilson admin- 
 istration has been even more criminally remiss. It has been marked 
 l)articularly with meddling in Mexico's internal affairs and usually 
 with an ineptitude that could not have been greater had it been a 
 studied effort. First on one side, then on another, Wilson inter- 
 fered. He flirted first with one belligerent and then another, lifted 
 the embargo on arms and lowered it time after time — and on each 
 occasion admitted arms and munitions to be used in the min^der of 
 more Americans. It was brought out in the Senate investigation 
 that, with the exception of the Torreon massacre of 303 Chinese 
 citizens, forty-six Americans were killed to one of all other foreign 
 nationalities in Mexico. 
 
 The interference of President ^^'ilson in affairs that were purely 
 and exclusively Mexican has been preposterous and often unique 
 in the history of civilized nations. No other nation in history ever 
 presumed such intermeddling as, for example, the John Lind 
 mission. This is perhaps the worst of many evil acts of inter- 
 ference recorded even of the Wilson administration. Instead of 
 conferring with Americans who had lived in Mexico and knew 
 thoroughly the situation AVllson sent John Lind, w^ho knew no 
 Spanish and nothing about Mexico, to dicker with Huerta, then 
 acting President, and to investigate conditions. Lind had instruc- 
 tions from Mr. Wilson to promise this and that on condition that 
 Huerta be not a candidate for the Presidency of ^Mexico. If that 
 was not attempting to dictate the internal affairs of a nation, 
 what is? 
 
 Then there was the seizure of Vera Cruz on the pretext of de- 
 manding a salute to the American flag and the futile end of the 
 expedition with no salute given. A score of Americans were killed 
 in that ill-starred expedition. It has been truly said : 
 
 DEATH AND FAILURE AS A POLICY 
 
 "President Wilson did not occupy Vera Cruz to avenge the out- 
 rage of the flag, as the Congress innocently believed, and as the 
 majority of the American pyeople still believe. President Wilson 
 occupied Vera Cruz, as he said metaphorically, 'to serve mankind,* 
 or, as Secretary Lane says without metaphor, 'to show Mexico that 
 we were in earnest in our demand that Huerta must go.' " 
 
 •Again, the raid on Columbus, N. M., was due to the fact that 
 Mr. \\'ilson took sides in the struggle between \'illa and Carranza 
 and ])ermitted the shii)ment of soldiers and munitions across Amer- 
 
 14 
 
lean territory to aid Carranza in attacking Villa. This was followed 
 by the abortive Pershing- expedition with the killing of more than a 
 score of x\merican soldiers ; and we failed to catch the perpetrators 
 of the hideous crime of Columbus because of the hamstringing of 
 the expedition by the Democratic officials in Washington, the fail- 
 ure of the Democratic administration to be prepared for trouble, 
 and hampering orders to Pershing by the pacifist Secretary of War. 
 
 More recently, only last year, we sided against \'illa when he 
 attacked Juarez and by armed intervention repulsed the Villistas 
 as they were on the point of victory, thereby changing the whole 
 course of Mexican history. The true American must hang his head 
 in shame at this interference because of one direct result — the 
 lynching by the Mexican military authorities, with Carranza's ex- 
 pressed approval, of Gen. Felipe Angeles, one of the few real friends 
 of the United States among tht big men below the border. 
 
 The Government of Carranza in Mexico literally owed its exist- 
 ence and its maintenance to W oodrow Wilson and his administra- 
 tion. Wilson recognized the military dictatorship of Carranza as 
 a de facto government before it even approximated such a state : he 
 furnished Carranza with arms and munitions when Carranza was 
 nothing more than a bandit on a par with Villa at his worst. It 
 would naturally be supposed, under these circumstances, that the 
 Carranza Government would have been our firm ally during the 
 European War. But the contrary was the case. 
 
 GERMANY HONORED AND AMERICA HISSED 
 
 Our Ambassador was hissed in the Mexican Congress while a 
 demonstration of friendship was given the German Minister. 
 Mexico became the center of German intrigue against the United 
 States. Most of the German plots, the conspiracies, the dynamite 
 explosions, strikes, spy systems, submarine attacks aimed at the 
 United States originated in Mexico. Wireless reports of condi- 
 tions and events here were transmitted daily from Mexico City to 
 Germany. Large numbers of German officers were assigned to 
 positions in the Mexican army. 
 
 The German Minister in Mexico became the real director of 
 foreign affairs and Japan was invited to join with Mexico in an 
 invasion of American soil. The Monroe Doctrine was flouted, and 
 the American people and the President of the United States were 
 derided and vilified publicly. American citizens and consular rep- 
 resentatives were arrested and thrown in jail. The oil wells, which 
 supplied the necessary fuel for the American and British fleets and 
 for the tanks and other motorized equipment at the very battle 
 fronts, were threatened with seizure at the behest of the Germans 
 who, unable to get the oil supply for themselves, were desperately 
 trying through their friend, Carranza, to prevent their enemies from 
 
 15 
 
\ \ 
 
 getting it. The enemy in Mexico was as violent in his hatred as 
 the foe across the sea. 
 
 Meanwhile contempt and ig-nominious dismissal met any at- 
 tempts at protection of American citizens and their interests and 
 for rej^aration for injuries inflicted upon them. It is a singular 
 thing — in all the history of the intrusion of President Wilson in 
 Alexico, there is not a single act calculated to protect Americans in 
 that country. A prominent Mexican, a statesman of parts who 
 understands and appreciates the United States and is friendly 
 toward us, writing in September. lOlG, emphasized "the absurdity 
 of the position taken by the President of the United States who, 
 instead of looking after the welfare of his countrymen, has con- 
 cerned himself with promoting the welfare of Mexicans, with re- 
 sults so completely negative that never has Mexico been poorer, 
 hungrier and more oppressed by an anarchical and criminal faction 
 than at this very day; the present Mexican Government — if it is to 
 be called such — a creature of President Wilson, has been declared 
 by Secretary Lansing 'not worthy of the name,' since it has proved 
 its 'neglect' and its 'failure' to fulfill 'the paramount obligation for 
 which governments are instituted,' to wit, 'the protection of life 
 and property.' " 
 
 THE BLACK SPOT OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 
 
 ^Iv. Wilson came into the Presidency after a military coup in 
 ?^Iexico — not uncommon in Latin American republics — had over- 
 thrown the government. President Taft left the Democratic ad- 
 ministration a free hand to follow its "own course. A\ ith wdiat 
 result? By incompetence and inefficiency, intemperance and intol- 
 erance, interference and neglect, the Wilson administration de- 
 stroyed the one chance Mexico had to restore a stable government; 
 it overthrew governments in embryo ; it sent envoys to rebels in 
 arms against a friendly government ; it brought on anarchy ; it 
 caused the murder of hundreds of Americans, the loss of hundreds 
 of homes of Americans; the violent death of tens of thousands of 
 Mexicans, and the destruction of hundreds of millions of property 
 belonging to Americans and Mexicans. 
 
 The Democratic record in Mexico is a record of shame that the 
 United States will find it difficult to live down — a record that w-ill 
 cost many years of dutiful effort to regain friendship and restore 
 prosperity. It is one of the few black spots on the pages of 
 American history. 
 
 LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
 16 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 013 982 892 6 
 
 HoUinger 
 
 pH8.5 
 
 Mill Run F3-1955 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 013 982 892 6 
 
 Hollinger 
 
 pH8.5 
 
 Mill Run F3.1955